/ Financial / FTA Provides $277.5M in Hurricane Recovery Funds

FTA Provides $277.5M in Hurricane Recovery Funds

Parul Dubey on June 4, 2018 - in Financial, News

The Federal Transit Administration allocated $277.5 million in emergency relief funding on May 31 for public transportation systems damaged by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria last year. The funds come from a Congressional appropriation of $330 million made for FTA’s Emergency Relief Program in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, passed in February this year.

The agency said approximately $232.3 million of those funds will be dedicated to response, recovery, and rebuilding projects, with $44.2 million going toward resiliency projects.

FTA noted it plans to allocate the funds as follows:

  • $223.5 million for Puerto Rico
  • $23.3 million for Texas
  • $22.8 million for Florida
  • $6.7 million for the U.S. Virgin Islands
  • $187,000 for Georgia.

Each state or territory will be able to use the grant funding for several major categories, such as emergency operations, damages to transit vehicles and infrastructure, and the cost of resiliency projects to better protect against future disasters, the agency added, with costs incurred during emergency operations eligible for reimbursement.

“The Department is committed to helping these communities recover from the devastation wreaked by the hurricanes as well as preparing them for future emergencies,” noted Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in a statement.

“Public transportation played a critical role in providing emergency support and evacuations in response to these catastrophic hurricanes,” added FTA Acting Administrator K. Jane Williams. “FTA will continue to work with our local partners to ensure these funds will help make emergency response and preparedness efforts as effective as possible.”

Photo: Hector Mosley / Army Corps of Engineers

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